I am wondering if I should just water them with straight RO water and not worry about a pH swing and hope the soil will do it’s job buffering the pH when I add just the RO water.
RO water and pH
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Using rain and air conditioner condensation water (should be close to RO), I switched to MegaCrop from AN pH Perfect, mostly in coco/perlilte, and continued to never bother to check pH, and have seen no deficiencies or excesses. I am currently not checking pH using BioBizz Light (soil). I recall others have reported MegaCrop being rather forgiving (bioavailable over a wide range of pH, like pH Perfect) such that no pH adjustment is needed.
Is all this checking of pH really needed in soil when the nutes are highly bioavailable over a wide range of pH? Another 'myth' plaguing growers, requiring needless work? Doesn't soil easily buffer any non-excessive salts-containing feed solution its given? I would presume that starting with RO would be even better with soil vs. coco in terms of the medium self-buffering, not needing adding even more salts to bring it to some set pH.
Is all this checking of pH really needed in soil when the nutes are highly bioavailable over a wide range of pH? Another 'myth' plaguing growers, requiring needless work? Doesn't soil easily buffer any non-excessive salts-containing feed solution its given? I would presume that starting with RO would be even better with soil vs. coco in terms of the medium self-buffering, not needing adding even more salts to bring it to some set pH.
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So it seems you agree with me -- If you use good nutes (bioavailable over a good range, such a pH Perfect and MegaCrop) and don't add too much salts-containing supplements from there (should not need much, if any, added with MegaCrop), you don't need to pH nutes fed to healthy soil.
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I just got some bloom booster but to eliminate ph up and down I'll be mixing ro with tap and alternating calmag and bloom. Same would work in veg. Feed, calmag, feed, so you would eliminate a water only. Then adjust accordingly, also its best to mix nutes and calmag the night before. I noticed a major ph change overnight.
My tap is 7.5 and 152 so I mix 60%ro and 40%tap. With my full strength bloom it comes out perfect at 6.75.
My tap is 7.5 and 152 so I mix 60%ro and 40%tap. With my full strength bloom it comes out perfect at 6.75.
Nice my tap water from my well is between 400-450 ppm and a pH of 7.2 to 7.5. I have thought about mixing 1/4 tap and 3/4 RO to see what the ppm is. I just need eliminate the extra cal mag with my feed and add cal mag with every water.
Found this article tonight and it had some good info in it. It says that you should always add nutrients to RO and not water with straight water. Straight RO will strip the soil. My guess is I have been causing my deficiency’s due to this. https://www.blackdogled.com/blogproperly-adjusting-ph-in-your-water-and-nutrient-mix/
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Been running RO for about 2 years now.
You should never water with plain RO. It has been stripped of all minerals. Unless you at least add some cal/mg, it will pull minerals out of the medium.
As it should be stripped of everything, and close to 0 ppm, pH should be neutral, @ 7. But due to the lack of minerals in the water, pH will be difficult to measure on plain RO.
It's a pia... but if RO is needed (like here), then it makes it worth it.
You should never water with plain RO. It has been stripped of all minerals. Unless you at least add some cal/mg, it will pull minerals out of the medium.
As it should be stripped of everything, and close to 0 ppm, pH should be neutral, @ 7. But due to the lack of minerals in the water, pH will be difficult to measure on plain RO.
It's a pia... but if RO is needed (like here), then it makes it worth it.
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